Working-time rules

Working-time rules in Malta

What the law says in Malta about rest, hours, breaks, night work and workers under 18, with the provision behind each figure, and what helloswap checks when a shift is planned, swapped or taken.

The figures for adults

Each figure is the law's, with the number of its source. The last column says what helloswap does with a shift that breaks it.

Rule	What the law says	In helloswap
Rest between two shifts	At least 11 hours in a row¹	Blocks the shift
Average working week	At most 48 hours a week on average over 17 weeks²³52 weeks in manufacturing and in tourism, travel and catering³	Blocks the shift
Weekly rest	One day off a week, taken together with the daily rest: 35 hours in a row⁴	Warning
Break	At least 15 minutes when the working day is longer than 6 hours⁵⁶	Warning
Night period	22:00 to 06:00⁷	Definition
Night work	Someone who normally works at least 3 hours of the day in the night period is a night worker⁷	Definition
Limit for night work	At most 8 hours on average in every twenty-four hours, over 17 weeks⁸⁹	Blocks the shift

Workers under 18

Someone who is under 18 on the day of the shift gets these figures. helloswap goes by the date of birth on the person's profile. An empty cell means the law has no figure there that this page can state.

Rule	Under 15	Age 15	Ages 16–17	In helloswap
Rest between two shifts	14 hours¹⁰	14 hours¹⁰	12 hours¹¹	Blocks the shift
Longest working day	2 hours on a school day¹²7 hours on a day without school¹²	8 hours on a day without school¹²2 hours on a school day¹²	8 hours¹³	Blocks the shift
Longest working week	12 hours in a school week¹²35 hours in a week without school¹²	12 hours in a school week¹²40 hours in a week without school¹²	40 hours¹³	Blocks the shift
No work between	20:00 and 06:00¹⁴	20:00 and 06:00¹⁴	22:00 and 06:00¹⁵	Blocks the shift
Weekly rest	2 consecutive days off a week¹¹	2 consecutive days off a week¹¹	2 days off a week¹¹	Blocks the shift
Break	30 minutes when the day is longer than 4.5 hours¹⁶	30 minutes when the day is longer than 4.5 hours¹⁶	30 minutes when the day is longer than 4.5 hours¹⁶	Warning

Nobody under 14 may be employed, apart from narrow exceptions such as performances with a permit.¹⁷
Where the law has one figure for school days or school weeks and another for free days or holidays, the first figure in the cell is the one helloswap applies, every day and every week. It does not know which days are school days.
The longest day and week count hours of work: the company's unpaid break is taken off first when the shift is long enough to need a break.
Weekly rest is measured over the 7 days up to the shift. Too few days off blocks the shift; days off that are not next to each other give a warning, because the law itself allows them to be split in some cases.
helloswap does not check whether someone of a given age may be employed at all, or in which kind of work.

What stands out in Malta

A worker can agree in writing to work more than 48 hours a week on average. helloswap has a switch for this on each person: with it on, the weekly average no longer blocks their shifts, while rest between shifts, breaks and the night limits still apply. It never applies to anyone under 18.²¹⁸

How helloswap applies them

The law's figure is one thing, the check another. Where the two differ, it says so here.

Rest between two shifts: helloswap measures from the end of one shift to the start of the next. A shift that leaves less than 11 hours is not saved.
Average working week: The hours are added up over 17 weeks and divided by the number of weeks. Shifts on days of approved leave are not counted. A shift that takes the average over 48 hours is not saved.
Weekly rest: helloswap looks at the 7 days up to the shift and gives a warning when they hold no rest of at least 35 hours in a row. A rest that began before those days counts in full.
Break: helloswap compares the 15 minutes with the break length the company has set and gives a warning when a shift longer than 6 hours has a shorter one.
Night period: The hours that count as night for adults, where no agreement sets others. Workers under 18 have hours of their own, in their own table.
Night work: The law speaks of someone who normally works like this. helloswap goes by the shift: every shift that meets it is treated as a night shift.
Limit for night work: The law averages a night worker's working time over all the days of the period. helloswap is stricter: it averages the length of the person's night shifts over the last 17 weeks and does not save a shift that takes that average over 8 hours.

What blocks a shift, and what only warns

The split is the product's own and the same for every company.

Blocks: the shift is not saved

Nobody can override these, whether a manager plans the shift, someone takes it from the swap board or it is part of a swap.

Rest between two shifts
Average working week
Limit for night work
The figures for workers under 18, except the break

Warns: the manager decides

The shift can still be saved. The warning names the rule and says why.

Weekly rest
Break
The break for workers under 18

Sources

Every figure on this page carries the number of the provision it was read in. The links go to the official text.

Check the rest between two shifts

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